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Taylor Brooke
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Shadows You Left Paperback – May 7, 2019

by Jude Sierra (Author), Taylor Brooke (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 17 ratings

ERIK
The white picket fence.
The happily-ever-after.
That life was never meant for him.
For years he's been bouncing from city to city—from one cage fight to another.
That's his outlet. That's pain Erik can control.
But in Seattle, everything changed.
River's an artist.
He's a pretty boy.
He does yoga.
Someone so soft shouldn't be intrigued by Erik's rough edges.

RIVER
His life was quiet. He had a simple routine.
Designing tattoos, avoiding drama. Well, mostly.
Then Erik comes along—scarred and dangerous, shrouded in mystery.
A mystery River can't resist trying to solve.
Maybe a secret as dark as his own.
Neither of them expected a relationship so complicated, so intense.
Neither of them expected...each other.
Erik and River are both trying to escape a shadowed past.
But the thing about shadows is: the faster you run, the faster they chase you.

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  1. Print length
    350 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    May 7, 2019
  4. Dimensions
    5 x 0.88 x 8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1097209237
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1097209231
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 7, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 350 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1097209237
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1097209231
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.88 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 17 ratings

About the author

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Taylor Brooke

Taylor Brooke

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4 out of 5 stars
17 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Leigh
    5.0 out of 5 stars Dream team
    Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2019
    Taylor Brooke and Jude Sierra are a dream team. Gorgeous prose, richly developed characters, and a captivating plot had me glued to the pages. No matter what Erik and River have to work through, hope and healing is at the center of this story and I could not have loved it more.

    There's a demiromantic cage fighter and a bisexual tattoo artist. (Gah, my heart.) It explores grief, loss, codependency, and addiction in some really nuanced ways. I adored River and Erik and their found family from start to finish. I hope this author duo teams up again soon!

    CW: addiction, codependency, casual drug use, alcoholism, violence (cage fighting), grief, reference to death of a loved one, anxiety, panic attacks, reference to death by overdose

    Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from the authors.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Ntokozo
    3.0 out of 5 stars A trip!
    Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I really enjoyed this but I also found that the way some parts were written had me a bit muddled. I think that might be how the characters were feeling at the time - fighting through their many motivations so I can’t exactly say that was a bad thing. I just wanted them to get to a place where they were both a peace so bad and that’s what kept me reading. It’s insane to think that out of such suffering and hurt, something beautiful can arise. I loved all the dragon imagery and stories about tattoo artistry. 3.5 stars!
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  • Sherry M.
    4.0 out of 5 stars Angst, and lots of it
    Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2019
    The proper word to describe this romance is “angsty.”

    The main characters both have baggage, and a lot of it. Erik is a cage fighter whose fights serve as a sort of penance for a tragic event in his past for which he blames himself. He commemorates his wins with tattoos, and that’s how he meets tattoo artist River. The two of them are immediately attracted to each other, but Erik’s moods and secretiveness worry River, who has a history of codependent relationships with his addict mother and crazy ex-girlfriend.

    The authors did a great job of exploring the deepening feelings of two men who are attracted to each other almost in spite of themselves. Erik is convinced that River is too good for him and that he doesn’t deserve the happiness he feels when they are together. For his part, River sees the good in Erik but can’t help falling into his accustomed caretaker role in response to Erik’s physical and emotional pain. Their relationship is almost equal parts affection and anguish.

    I think the book dwells the tension between these two aspects of their romance a little too long. It’s a very “interior” story, with all of the focus on the conflicting emotions felt by Erik and River. The push and pull between them as they come together and then retreat repeats over and over again. It’s a relief to both the characters AND the reader when they finally accept that their love is strong enough to be worth fighting for rather than running away from each other.

    I did really appreciate that when they decide that they want to be together, it’s not presented as magically healing all their problems, as sometimes happens in romance novels. There’s a recognition that each of them is going to have to continue to work on overcoming their own issues in order for them to have a healthy relationship.

    If you love romances with lots of angst, I’d suggest giving this one a try. I’m curious if the authors are going to collaborate again, because there’s a nonbinary character in this one that I would like to see more of in another book.

    A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.
    One person found this helpful
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  • T. G.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly enjoyed devouring this.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2019
    River and Erik's story is two broken people finding something they didn't even know they wanted from what was supposed to be a one night stand. Brooke and Sierra are both excellent writers in their own right, and this team project is a seamless weaving of perception, points of view, and emotion that pulls in the reader and won't let go, much like these men do to each other. An angsty tale with a hopefully ever after that is a fantastic read.
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  • Bibliophilic Lab Rat
    3.0 out of 5 stars Has potential, but too dark for me
    Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2019
    DNF @ 63%

    I may come back to this but I doubt it, and this is definitely a case of “it’s me, not you.” I <I>really</I> wanted to like this book, but the whole time I was reading it was hovering at 3 stars, but it just got to a point I couldn’t take it anymore.

    Shadows You Left is about River, a tattoo artist <spoiler>with an alcoholic mother and dealing with related trauma</spoiler>, and Erik, a cage fighter dealing with his own history <spoiler>and past death of one of his best friends</spoiler>. They had nodded heads at one another when Erik went to Styx to get tattoos after winning a fight, but when his usual artist moves he goes to River and the attraction between them is immediate.

    I liked that the book is separated into parts on the dragons Erik gets tattooed, and their meanings shows a gradual shift in his self-image, in a sense. Erik sees himself as poison and broken, and River tries to show him that despite being broken in some ways, he isn’t just poison. I also really liked the on-page mentions of Erik’s demiromanticism and it’s a unique exploration of his feelings developing for River because it feels too fast. In the 63% I had read, only like two months had passed and already River had a drawer at Erik’s apartment. I also really appreciated that, while Erik kinda uses his demiromanticism as a shield, it’s not an issue in the development of the relationship of Erik and River.

    Like, this book definitely had potential and I obviously liked elements, so why is it a DNF for me? Reading this book felt like my brain was being painted in giant swaths of grey. You know how the scenes in shows like Game of Thrones have lots of shadow and sometimes hard to make out what’s going on? That’s how this book felt to me, like the shadows inside Erik and River were weighing down my reading experience. Not only that, but <spoiler>there are several scenes where Erik uses drugs, including cocaine, on page.</spoiler> It made me really uncomfortable, and I’m all for messy characters having unhealthy coping mechanisms, and this behavior is kinda addressed as unhealthy, but at the same time it felt very tied to Erik’s cage fighting persona(?) and the people he surrounded himself with, even if they were more friend-of-a-friend, encouraged and even provided Erik’s supply.

    I think this book definitely has the potential to mean a lot to many readers cuz I could see how the book was going to have central themes of healing, inner strength, and building trust, which are themes I’ve seen in writing from both authors, but this book just was not a good fit for me. I wish I’d liked it more because I was excited for demiro rep and I have really enjoyed other books by both authors, but Shadows You Left just filled my brain with too much grey and shadow for me to enjoy it....
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